


Something to Take Home

by orange_8_hands



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Book 7: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Canon Compliant, F/M, Gen, POV Female Character, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Punishment, Wordcount: 1.000-3.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-01
Updated: 2012-01-01
Packaged: 2017-10-28 15:42:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/309436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orange_8_hands/pseuds/orange_8_hands
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If she has to leave the battlefield early, Ginny's going to leave something big behind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Something to Take Home

**Author's Note:**

> Set a month after [Fuck You, Mary Sue](http://archiveofourown.org/works/309427), though I think it works as a stand alone.
> 
> Originally posted on [my LJ](http://orange-8-hands.livejournal.com/1349.html), Dec 2011.

  
"So what do you want to do then?" Ginny asks.

Neville just sits and runs his hands over his face, smearing a little of the blood from the corner of his lips, too tired, too bloody exhausted to notice a little cut amongst all the others. Ginny's back is sore and her hands ache and she's still walking with a limp, hates the weakness but can't disguise it, both of them products of the latest round of punishment. She wishes they had just been sent to the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid and Fang, wishes Hagrid was still in his hut offering them tea and bloody meat to put on their bruises.

"I overheard Professor Snape say they want to use student's families to keep them in line," he finally says, which doesn't answer her question, but then she wasn't really expecting one. They don't honestly have a game plan beyond screw with the Carrows, and that just means figuring out the lines they'll let others get caught crossing in order to say _we're still here_ , _we're still fighting_.

In order to say _fuck you_ , because someone has to. In order to say _have hope_ , because they need to believe this will end.

Ginny loved Hogwarts but not like some of them, not like Harry, not like Neville. Hogwarts was wonderful but she had a home, she had a family and a place to go back to. Hogwarts was good but it hadn't always been kind to her. Hell, she spent most of her first year possessed, and that she wasn't left behind was the strongest testament to her smarts she had.

(Third year. Third year was a good year, and it doesn't escape her notice that that's the year she had nothing to do with Harry Potter.)

"We have break in a week," Neville finally says, closing his eyes and resting his head against the chair. They had meetings in the Room of Requirements because where else were they supposed to go to be safe, but the couches and chairs and healing brews Neville got it to supply them with were very, very helpful.

"I don't know if they're going to let me come back," Ginny whispers, because she doesn't want to do this to him, to what they've accomplished (she misses Luna and her made-up creatures fiercely), but she also can't lie to him, can't promise to take the blow with him when she may not be here to receive it.  "The last letter mum wrote...they know Ron's with him..." She shrugs, uncomfortable, when Neville finally looks at her. She is reminded, with the same fierce affection that rolled through her with Luna, saying yes to him to go to the Yule Ball, partly because she wanted to go and partly because of pity and partly because she always, always liked how kind his eyes looked.

"Then you should go out with a bang," he says, and grins.

**

They never actually got rid of the swamp Fred and George left behind when they broke out two years ago. Professor Flitwick made it tiny and left a rope hanging across it, but they never actually got rid of it. "An impressive bit of magic," was his answer, and there was a reason even _Peeves_ listened to their instructions to deal mayhem at Umbridge in their names when they flew out of the hall. 

Ginny was a good student, okay. Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts were easy, and she kept up just fine in the others, and her Magical Art Professor adored her, and she spent sixteen years as the little sister of two of the most well known prank artists of any generation, so when it was just her and a spray can, or her and a potion, or her and whatever prop was needed for whatever prank she decided to pull, she never really worried about being caught and punished. (She may have _gotten_ punished for a lot of them, sure, but that was just because the Carrows suspected her, not because they caught her.) She wasn't - she didn't - scare easily, is all she wanted to point out.

And she wasn't strictly scared now. To, you know, point that out. But the floor had just let out a very large groan and she was holding her breath and watching very, very carefully for any movement, because she didn't scare easily but if Alecto Carrow woke up and pointed her wand at the student standing in her room Ginny would have to work very hard not to yell. (The pain, let's be honest, would be excruciating. Ginny had enough experience - and really, the first time landed that lesson home easily - to know the Cruciatus Curse hurt beyond the ability one had to control one's screaming.)

Ginny counted slowly to one hundred, took several large (silent) breaths, and moved away from the door to the nightstand, angled the card carefully so Alecto Carrow would see it first thing when she woke up, and moved just as carefully back across the floor and through the door. Her heart didn't start beating at its normal rhythm until she finally caught up with Neville at the Pegasus statue on the second floor and neither Carrow sibling was chasing them.

"Well, at least the hard part's over," she said, and she and Neville exchanged very amused looks before heading out again, because that was just step one, and this was - now that the really hard part was over - fun.

**

Pranks can be simple. That was rule one.

Pranks can be cruel. That was rule five.

Anything was possible, if you just stretched your mind enough. That was the biggest rule of all.

**  

It took two nights to do enough cards. The spell was simple enough, taught her second year in Magical Arts, and Colin had always been extremely good at it, so between the three of them they managed to get two hundred and twelve of them done in front of the common room fireplace, started after everybody else went to bed and continued until they dragged themselves upstairs to get enough sleep to be semi-alert during classes the next day. Actually getting enough cards in the first place wasn't as hard as it could have been either, because Neville came back from the Room of Requirement two hours later with a box of them.

The hardest part was probably seeing Professor Dumbledore on the cards, because he was not supposed to be dead, he just wasn't, not after the war was finished and definitely not before it.

But Neville and her had quickly made a list of all the places they should put them, and one of them (it was Ginny, of course it was Ginny) had suggested sticking at least one in each of their rooms, like the worst wake up call ever. 

So they had.

**

They made it to the Dining Hall early, because what was the point if you didn't get to see at least some of the reaction, and the one they blew up fifty times its size and hung in front of the professor's table was even bigger than Ginny remembered it being the night before. Professor Dumbledore's voice rolled like thunder, like honey, and it coated them like fine wine.

"Voldemort will be defeated" and "I would like to say a few words - Hopscotch! Radishes! Tweak!" (Ginny's pretty sure she saw Professor McGonagall, just entering the Dining Hall, give the smallest smile behind her usual frown) and "It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies" and "Dumbledore's Army continues!" and then the Carrows were there, pointing their wands so the banner exploded, and the Dining Hall fell completely silent.

"Who did this, who did this?" screeched Alecto Carrow, swopping through the tables and shoving at some of the students.

Ginny and Neville kept completely blank (it was good Colin wasn't here yet, he wasn't very good at keeping expressions off his face) and this time Alector Carrow didn't even pause before them like she usually did, just kept shoving students with wild eyes. Amycus Carrow was waving his hands and making gulping noises, anger and hatred (and maybe fear?) making him sputter.

Then Professor Snape entered, and Neville and Ginnny straightened because he was supposed to be gone, he was supposed to be somewhere else this morning. _Nothing nothing nothing_ , Ginny chanted in her mind, knew Neville was doing the same (she warned him Snape was extremely good at Legilimency) trying to think only that, only that word, but staring at Alecto Carrow and hoping she didn't turn over was a memory pushing at the sides of her mind.

"Severus, look, look at what they did, do you see this?" Alecto Carrow said, swooping back up the front table, pushing her talons into his chest. Amycus Carrow spun around and made one more spluttering motion before words finally started pouring out. "They were in our room," he said. "They left Dumbledore's picture on our nightstands saying-"

Professor Snape held up a hand, and Amycus Carrow sputtered off again. "They go home today. You will have plenty of time to find the culprits. Now, if you can keep from simpering in front of them, it would be much easier." He turned back to the rest of the Hall. "Go, now," and the children scattered, Ginny and Neville carefully staying as far from the three of them as possible. She wasn't sure but it was possible his eyes landed on her for just an instant too long ( _nothing nothing nothing_ ) but no one called their names as they left the Hall and hurried back to the Gryffindor Tower. 

Everybody was talking about it, she knew everyone would know about it before they even got on the train to leave, gossip spread faster than you could say _incendio_ , and she and Neville shared a very brief, very real smirk. This was something students would tell their parents about, had a whole week to think nothing else but this about.

 _A fuck you to take home_ , Ginny thought, and smothered a laugh.


End file.
